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Five Sleep Hacks to Get a Better Night’s Rest

If you would like to improve the quality of the rest you get whilst in bed without having to fork out a small fortune for a gym membership – and then actually go to the gym every week or cut out caffeine, read on; this is for you.

Lavender

Whilst lavender, which is undeniably a pleasant scent, is not exactly a fashionable one, research such as that reported by The National Sleep Foundation suggests that this little purple plant might just be the perfect herb to create a calm, relaxing atmosphere that is conducive to a good night’s sleep.

How and why? Well, lavender helps to decrease heart rate and as such inhaling its scent can help to relax and calm the body. So, if it is stress, frustration or the inability to chill out that’s keeping you from getting rest, and you can stand the smell, give Lavender a go.

Get a Dog, and Let it Sleep on the Bed

For many letting the dog into the bedroom or, god forbid, on the bed is a big no no. As reported by the Daily Mail though, research published as recently as December 2015 suggests that those who slacken the rules and do indeed let the dog curl up with them, stand to get a better night’s sleep.

Originally carried out by the Mayo Sleep Clinic in Arizona, it is supposed that the reason findings suggest those who let their pets crawl into bed with them slept better was that they felt safer and so more able to relax. Think back to our early beginnings and how man made use of dogs and the likes to protect them, and it is easy to see the logic.
So, whilst getting a dog might be pushing it, if you already have one, next time you struggle to get your head down, don’t take it out on the dog, instead invite him (or her) in and give him a cuddle.

Set Your Alarm Clock to Go Off…at Midnight

As quoted via the Well and Good website, sleep guru Michael Breus, PhD, says that setting his alarm clock to go off in order to notify him as to when to go to sleep, rather than when to wake up has meant that he hasn’t needed a morning wake up call for 15 years. The trick, Breus makes clear, is to bear with this one – it could take a week or so to get your body into playing ball, but apparently after that, the only thing required is the will power to tear yourself away from the iPhone after it has gone off to tell you: it is bedtime.

Proving that Comfort Blankets Can Be Cool

Of course, if putting down the iPhone is simply not an option, the answer might be to simply give in. As they say after all, if you cannot beat them join them.

To do so, why invest in the likes of a cosy Sound Asleep MP3 Speaker Blanket via available online via pillows specialists Sleepy People. Then, you can curl up and kick back before bed with your iPhone and come turning in time, lay back and turn the volume up to nod off undisturbed by all those worries and strife otherwise nattering away in the back of your mind.

4 7 8…Sleep!

A sleep hack in the most textbook definition, the 4 7 8 breathing technique is supposed to be able to get even the most seasoned insomnia to snore…and all within less than a minute, at least according to UK Newspapers such as the Telegraph, that is. So, the technique might just be worth trying even if you don’t believe a word of it (or, especially if you simply believe it).

To learn how to knock yourself in under a sixty seconds (apparently), simply head over to Dr. Weil’s website (the guy who came up with this particular hack) for instructions and a rather informative and not what-so-ever humorous or bizarre demonstration video created by the Dr. Himself.